3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on Ukulele Today

In this lesson, we’re going to learn some basic solo fingerpicking songs on the ukulele (songs that don’t have a vocal accompaniment to them). As a way to learn the correct fingerpicking techniques and to get our fingers moving, we’re going to learn three awesome nursery rhymes.

If we’re able to play these songs without a hiccup, we’ll be really well equipped to learn more difficult songs in future lessons.

Last week, I gave you a quick crash course on how to read music. In order to learn these fingerpicking songs, we need to know a little bit about reading music. So if you haven’t already, you might want to refer to last week’s post on how to read music.

The Right Way to Fingerpick the Ukulele

In my fingerpicking blues lesson, I went over fingerpicking technique a little bit. I presented two different techniques, but for this lesson, I want to focus on only one of them, because in my opinion, it will be more beneficial to use in the long run for these classical types of fingerpicking songs.

For the sake reference, I want to assign each of the four strings on the ukulele a number.

The G string is the 4th string. The C string is the 3rd string. The E string is the 2nd string, and the A string is the 1st string.

To fingerpick these songs, we’re going to use only our thumb, index, and middle finger.

Our thumb will be used to the pluck the 4th and 3rd strings. Our index finger will be used to pluck the 2nd string. Our middle finger will be used to pluck the 1st string.

We will also plant our pinky on the top of the ukulele, just below the sound hole, to stabilize our picking hand.

There will exceptions to this rule, but this should be considered “home base” for our three fingers.

Check out this short video where I demonstrate the fingerpicking technique we will be using for these songs.

A Common Question About Finger Placement

You might be wondering, “Why not use our ring finger as well, so each finger (thumb, index, middle, and ring) can be assigned to a string?”

That’s a great question, and it’s one that’s often debated. Honestly, assigning each of your four fingers to pluck one of the four strings on the ukulele is not a bad way to go for some songs (such as the blues fingerpicking patterns).

However, fingerpicking like this can feel weird to some players, mainly in that, this method doesn’t use our thumb to pluck the lowest string. Because we are in standard re-entrant tuning, the lowest string on the ukulele is the second to top string. Some people (myself included) find that it’s a bit more intuitive and natural to assign the thumb to pluck this lowest string.

I prefer the three-finger fingerpicking technique for this reason and just because it’s less fingers. Because of this, I recommend the three-finger technique, however, you might need to experiment and see what works best for you.

Learn 3 Easy Solo Fingerpicking Songs on Ukulele

All three of these songs will be great songs for you to get your feet wet with fingerpicking on the ukulele. Thanks to PDF Minstrel for sharing the sheet music.

Unlike other video lessons I’ve done before, it’s very important that you download the music and tabs below each of these videos to follow along with me. In order to play these songs, we need the music and tabs. Again, if reading music and tab is foreign to you, be sure to check out my post on how to read music and how to read ukulele tabs.

For each video, I demonstrate the song, and then go over some potential tricky parts of each song and talk about those. The thing is, there might be some challenges that arise for you that aren’t covered in these videos, so if you have any questions whatsoever, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments section below!

Here are some tips for learning these songs:

Your fingers need time to get comfortable to the motion of plucking the strings. If it doesn’t come quickly, don’t be too hard on yourself.

As you practice, it’s very important to count out loud and even tap your foot. It’s possible that you’ll need to break down the rhythm in certain sections of the songs. Counting out loud allows you to do this with greater ease.

At first, you might need to slow some of these songs down to play them. Speed will come. You may even need to separate the song into four-bar sections and just focus on learning and playing each of those sections.

All to say, these songs are fantastic to learn if you are just beginning to fingerpick, or if you’ve been fingerpicking but want to add some more songs into your arsenal. However, fingerpicking poses its own set of challenges, so if you run into any problems, don’t hesitate to post your comment below and we’ll talk about it.

I’m excited to look at these songs! Here goes.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

This first song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” will be the easiest song to play out of the bunch as it uses a very simple quarter note rhythm and utilizes a lot of open strings.

Download and print off the tabs and music for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” here.

Note: If you are having trouble downloading the music, right click on the download link and select “Save Link As” or “Save Target As” to save the file to your desktop.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

This should be another familiar song, which makes it great for a beginning fingerpicker. It’s a bit more challenging though because there are some faster eighth note passages. You’ll want to make sure you are practicing counting out loud and slowing it down, so you can get those parts down perfectly.

Download and print off the tabs and music for “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” here.

Hey Diddle, Diddle the Cat & the Fiddle

In my opinion, this song is one of the prettiest out of the bunch. It’s important to note that unlike the previous two songs, this song is counted in three rather than four. There are some quick eighth notes that are best played with an alternating fingerpicking technique (I go over this in the video).

Download and print off the tabs and music for “Hey Diddle, Diddle the Cat & the Fiddle” here.

What Do You Think?

What challenges are you coming up against when playing these songs? I’d love to hear your questions and comments. If you have any tips or tricks, those are always very welcomed too. Let’s hear it!

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145 Comments

Veronique

Thank you for the great lessons!
This Belgian girl learns to play the ukulele from an American!
You’re the best!

So here I am in Dublin learning a few little ditties on my new ukulele that I got for Christmas using all these super fantastic videos from Brett (thanks bunches!) and I scroll down to read a couple comments and who do I find but Judy Marshak, the Ukulelology teacher my parents in Toronto were JUST gushing to me about over Skype! We should jam ukulele-style while I’m home in May! Robin Craig should join too, I hear she has a hand in all this as well!

p.s. I have a ukulele crush on Brett. Let’s do the duet from the Jerk.

I am a true beginner, not only with the uke but music in general. What chords are used to play this song. I printed out the music but it doesn’t indicate the chords, and I can’t tell from watching the video.

Buff, the interesting thing about these songs that there could be multiple chords that could be played over these songs. This lesson is focused on fingerpicking the melody of a song rather than strumming full chords. That is why the sheet music doesn’t have any chords on it.

If you haven’t already, I would suggest you take a look at my free ukulele lesson book. It’s perfect for a beginner like yourself and it focuses on songs where you’re actually playing chords rather than fingerpicking a melody. You can get it here:

Hey could you do beginner videos and tell us what chords to strum etc during the video, I just find watching something being played and taught visually rather than reading it, great website, keep it up!

Brett, thanks SO MUCH for sharing these awesome videos! You explain and demonstrate things very clearly. For a beginner like me who doesn’t have access to a teacher, it’s really really helpful. When I registered for your website a couple of months ago, I never received your book-or at least I wasn’t able to download it. I’ve since gotten a couple of other print books (The Daily Ukulele is great!), but I would still like to have yours. Could you send it to me again? Also, can you recommend any other resources for a beginner? Thanks again, Jo

Hey Jo, I just emailed you the free ukulele lesson book. I’m sorry about that inconvenience in getting it to you. I don’t know what happened there.

It sounds like you’re off to a great start. As I mentioned in my email, definitely explore all the lessons and songs here on Ukulele Tricks. There is a lot to tackle and to learn. If you haven’t already, check out my video lesson course Ukulele Strumming Tricks as well.

Jane, if you haven’t already, be sure to download the sheet music and tabs for each of these songs. It’s hard to learn just these songs by watching the video and not using the music. In the tabs, you can see that I’m at times plucking two strings with both my thumb and index finger. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi Brett, In the finger picking songs, you have done them in high G, my ukulele is tuned in low G,in C tuning, how do I change it to suit my ukulele? I have tried them but it doesn’t sound right. thanks 🙂

Hi Beth, essentially, you have to tune up your low G an octave to a G above middle C. However, you might need to get a regular ukulele string set. It’s possible that you have a wound low G string right now, and if you try tuning that up, you’ll probably break it, or it won’t sound good.

I’m using the sheet music and tabs for each song to play the song. You can download the music and tabs right below the videos above for each song. Those will show you exactly what notes and fingerings I am playing.

If you’re unfamiliar with how to read music, check out this crash course here:

I really love this Website. I really can’t wait to master finger picking as well as Ukulele playing. I’m finding it hard to read music so I’ll be looking over your learn music lesson over the next few days. Thank you for taking the time to run this Excellent Website. Your a Star.

Hey Brett! I just want you to know that I’m enjoying your website so far. I just tumbled across your video on playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and I like how you explain things very clearly! I think I’m gonna stick around for a couple more hours. 😀

I want to thank you Brett! I just bought my uke a few weeks ago and thanks to your lessons a beginner like me can all ready play a few songs! I’m heaving lots of fun with it!
Greatings from Belgium,
Vanessa

Even this old chick is able to learn new tricks -your tutorials remove the intimidation factor with your calm, non-condesending demeanor while imparting snipets of music theory and the art of having fun while learning some new ukulele tricks for kicks and giggles !!! Love love love

Hi Doris, in the tabs, sometimes you’ll see multiple notes that are played at once (chords). In these particular tabs, there aren’t any suggested finger positions for the left hand. Use you’re intuition and experiment with different finger positions for playing the chords represented in the tabs. There isn’t always a right or wrong way to play a chord. If you have a question about a specific chord, don’t hesitate to post a comment.

Hey Bret, you are so good at teaching. I have found that if I have the printout of the song you are demonstrating, it makes it easy (for me) to learn the piece. You give this 84 year old guy a lot of pleasure and fun. Thanks and keep up the good work.

Brett, I am a tall guy and so bought a big Uke, a Baritone. The strings are different as you know. My question is, since I am a beginner, can I put different strings on the Baritone Uke to make it play Soprano Uke notes.

Hi Ed, I’ve never done this to a baritone ukulele, so I can’t recommend it or speak on how it would affect the instrument. I recommend using a “capo” to barre the strings at the 5th fret of the baritone ukulele. This would turn your baritone ukulele into standard low G ukulele tuning (GCEA).

I’ve been trying my hand at some finger picking and came across your tutes. Yey! But I have a question: In Twinkle Twinkle, when I’m picking the G and E string together, it’s fine, but the C & E string together, I seem to do it so that only one really rings out and the other is just making a slight blip on the sound radar. Clearly I’m plucking one more than the other.

Any tips on how to get them even?

(I think it has something to do with the strings are closer together so my brain says I can’t move my fingers as much or something)

Hey Liz, that’s great you’re trying to get an even sound between the C & E string. That evenness will really enhance the overall sound of the song. I recommend plucking the C and E strings with your thumb and index finger respectively. In this way, it’s almost as if you are pinching the strings as you are plucking them. As an exercise, I would try to work on plucking these open strings without worrying about playing the song. Try to even up the sound as nice as possible. Remember, you don’t have to pluck very hard to make the strings ring out. Then, as you start to get an even sound, slowly play through Twinkle Twinkle and focus on making the notes on those strings as even as possible. These sorts of things definitely take practice, so keep at it, and I’m sure you will see improvement!

Hi thanks for your patience to make all these videos
I am a beginner of ukulele and I want to ask how long usually a beginner takes to play this song smoothly. I always worry if I am progressing too slowly to learn it through videos without a real teacher :S

Hi Eva, a lot of it depends on how long you’ve been playing the ukulele, or if you’ve played another instrument. Fingerpicking tends to be a little tricker than just playing and strumming some chords on the ukulele. This is because your fingers are required to move in a lot of different interesting ways.

Be patient with yourself. If you are a complete beginner to ukulele, it’ll probably take a few weeks of consistent practice before being able to think about playing these songs perfect. Feel free to post your questions if you run into any trouble. In addition, I wouldn’t hesitate to take a few lessons from a real teacher. This can give you some confidence and help you feel like you’re headed in the right direction.

Hey Brett- just want to say awesome, thank you for what you do.
Got my guitar-playing son a nice concert uke for Christmas and I fell in love with it. I always thought of them as hula song toys, or Tiptoe through the Tulips comedy things – boy was I wrong.
It’s refreshing to see a handsome polite young man helping people for the love of the music.
From an old dude learning a new trick – great work, great teaching style, thanks!

Hi Brett, these videos are great for a complete beginner like me but because I am completely new to the uke and sheet music as well, i don’t know what notes to play when looking at the tabs. I really want to learn to play the ukulele but don’t know how to create the notes, is there any suggestions on how to help? thanks

Brett I signed up for your lessons and thought that was the end of that, but you continually amaze me by doing extra like these finger picking lessons. I admire your generosity and have spread the word to my friends to sign on. Many thanks.

I am giving my Granddaughter her first (surprise) uke for her 7th biethday in two weeks. I hope she falls in love with it, too. I started geoup lessons 8 weeks ago and am quite addicted! Such fun, such nice people. I want to share some easy tabs and maybe one or two easy cord strumming songs with my Granddaughter. What uke are you playing in the videos, Brett? It aounds very nice.m Yes, I do have UAS already and want something nicer than the entry level Makala concert I bought to try ithe Uke lessons out. Your videos are so helpful, thank you from California!!

i already confirmed my confirmation 2 receive the free ukelele ebook, checked my spam mail but still i can not have the ebook. i am supposed to give it to my 10 year old daughter who is learning how to play the ukelele

hi brett, your ukulele lesson have helped me so much as im just learning the instrument.but i see in one of your videos you said you are also a guitar player.it is something else i am also learning ,do you have video tips for this also.
thanks
justin

Hi Brett, great fingerpicking lessons, i am 70 years old and never played a musical instrument in my life but am having a lot of fun getting a bit of a tune out of my uke and have also joined a ukulele group so i am meeting like minded people, keep up the good work, cheers

Hiya Brett,
just want to thank you for helping out. Actually the reason why I bought a ukulele was because I found your site and decided I should just go for it. I bought an expensive uke, so you could say a bit of reckless decision! But I’m practicing every single day with your help and it’s going well. And just putting this out there you’re really cute (: hope that wasn’t awkward and thanks again!

Just had to say you’re a VERY generous soul to be doing this for all the ukulele geeks out there (like me!!) 🙂 I super appreciate your lessons, your patience and your explanations – you are very good at this Brett! British Columbia sends you “scwunches” (a scwunch is a squeeze & a hug in a bunch = a scwunch)

I thought your strumming and picking videos were good but honestly I don’t get this one. Never in your twinkle twinkle video do you explain which notes to play. I know how to read music because I play piano, and your “how to read music” just addresses the basics of reading music. It doesn’t address how to convert that to something on a uke. When you see music, how do you know what strings to pluck and what frets to press?. Did you (or did I) miss that lesson?

Thank you so much for your site. What a huge help it’s been. We’ve only been trying to learn the uke for about 2 weeks. We homeschool our children, and you’ve become our music teacher:) In fact even my husband has joined in on the fun, with all of us now learning to play our own ukes. I’m getting ready to teach a music co-op next week and I really appreciate all your insight. I was intimidated by finger picking songs that had 2 notes plucked at once, but with your site, I feel a lot more comfortable with them. Thanks for the relaxed, comprehensive instruction:)

I have never played any instrument. In looking at the sheet music for Twinkle,twinkle, I do not understand the “tab” line. Are those the plucked strings and the assigned finger to pluck that string?

I am so excited to find your website. You explain things in a basic easy to grasp method despite my lack of experience! I just need a little basic info and I feel as though I can learn to play, with your help of course.

Hi Yvonne, you are very close. The tab indicates which fret you position your fretting hand on the fretboard and on which string. I have a lesson on how to read ukulele tab that I recommend checking out:

I am so glad you are there! I have looked at so many sites but they leave little things out that leave me stranded. Not so here…thank you so much!! Thinking about your strumming video course for sure. Thank you!

I have enjoyed your teaching Brett. You lay things out well. I’m a long time guitar and banjo player (never got real accomplished at either) and picked up the Uke 2 months ago. I love this little guy and have been working on a few pretty advanced songs, all fingerstyle, no strumming. I found myself in need of some practise material to help me along and get some variety going. Your Ukulele Exersises for Dummies is just what I needed. I can now switch back and forth learning the songs I’m working on and having fun with your fingerstyle exersises. Thank you!

Hi Margy, when it comes to fingerpicking and fingerstyle, for the most part, yes. Some fingerstyle songs are arranged for low G tuning, where a tenor ukulele more suited for that. For strumming though, any ukulele will do the trick.

Thank You So Much! I actually live in Hawaii and have been learning to play Uke for the last year. Finger picking “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” make me feel like I’m actually making music. Even though it’s simple, it’s lovely for beginners like myself. Mahalo!

Thanks so much, Brett! I didn’t think I could play this well at first because I learned keyboards as a child and strings are somewhat intimidating. I got my ukulele two afternoons ago and thanks to you, I’ve learned 10 chords, simple strumming and simple finger picking as well. You’re an excellent teacher. Just being able to strum has put a huge smile on my face. Thank you very much. Big smiles from Brinda in Singapore! 🙂

Thanks! I’m a classical guitarist and found this useful. I love the guitar but my girlfriend bought me a uke for Christmas (I’ve wanted to learn a second instrument for ages) so it’s back to the beginning for me!

LUV the finger stylings! Pulling two strings at once makes an awesome sound! Before I found your program, I tried to learn with the Hal Leonard series & learned to pluck the notes for Love Me Tender and All My Loving (Beatles). He does not teach finger style. Will you teach us (post the tabs for) those songs finger style? Pleeeease! AND Thank you! Rock and Roll with big smiles ya’ll. :))

Hi Jingles, I wouldn’t say so. A lot of it will depend on the arrangements. I recommend looking more at ukulele arrangements for low G tuning. Roger Ruthen has a great selection at http://pdfminstrel.wordpress.com/.

My husband got me a uke for my birthday a couple weeks ago and I am so happy I found your site! I can crudely play all three of these songs now just after a couple days of minimal practice. Gotta get used to moving my fingers on the fret right. Looking forward to learning with your help!

Thanks for the great fingerpicking lessons!! I come from a guitar background and I’m used to playing with a pick, so playing and strumming with my fingers is a challenge. I just got my Martin C1K ukulele in the mail yesterday, and thanks to your free lesson book and some of your videos, as well as these fingerpicking lessons, I’m well on my way already!

Hi Brett,
This site is absolutely wonderful, thank-you for all your hard work! I am left handed and am picking my uke up for the first time. Can you recommend any tips for how to learn in a predominately right-handed beginner’s world? I’m trying to learn twinkle twinkle little star and am getting so mixed up trying to switch the chart upside down in my head. I have a pretty good understanding of theory from playing flute, any way that can help me?

Hi Jillian, I can understand where you’re coming from. Although I play the ukulele “right handed”, my dominant hand is the left. What charts are you looking at right now? With chord diagrams, you’ll need to switch those around. I recommend writing them out on a piece of paper in a “left-hander” perspective. For the tab and sheet music, such as in this lesson, there won’t be any differences between reading it as a left-hander versus a right-hander.

At last I can play a musical instrument. I’ve been searching for websites that show ukulele tabs but have not had much success. Several claim to show tabs but only show chords. Any suggestions? Especially country stuff.

Hi Brett,
I’m so happy that I came across this website because all of your videos and information have been so helpful, so thank you so much for making them. Also, I love the little melody that’s played at the beginning of your “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” video, and I was wondering if you could tell me what song it’s from.

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the videos and the article. I’ve been learning the Ukulele for about a week and I’m happy with my progress. I’ve got Twinkle Twinkle down to a fine art! It’s sites like this that make all the difference. When I tried to learn the guitar almost 20 years ago I failed, probably because I was ten and had no help or even a tuner, but also because of the lack of intructional material available outside of expensive teach yourself books and magazines.

Thanks for putting this online, it’s been really helpful. I now sing my daughters off to sleep with my Ukulele!

Brett,
I haven’t played ukulele since high school. My daughter susan, got me a tenor uke for Christmas, and I am having a great time. So far my fingers are sore, but I am still having fun. I did not know, you can finger pick the uke. I believe you are to be my teacher, from here on. You seem so relaxed. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. I am 76 years young, and am having a Great time, thanks to you.
All my love, Richard Blocher

I tend to have big hands, so when I hold the ukulele, I like to rest it in the “V” where my thumb and index finger meet. This also means my thumb can tend to peak over the top string. I don’t generally like to use this thumb to play any notes on the fretboard.

Hi there Brett. I live in Chiefland, Florida. I started out playing the guitar. I just cannot play it. So I picked up the Ukulele. I’ve been playing the Ukulele for nearly a month now! I love your plain and simple lessons. I got the Ukulele for Dummies book (via KindleFire) and the Ukulele Exercises for Dummies via Kindle. I love them. I am learning so much! What a great teacher you are…and you’re not bad on the eyes either! 😀

I found these lessons wonderful. I love plucking. How fun. Using the metronome sure makes it challenging. It may take me a couple days to work on the 120 bpm in the Hey Diddle Diddle one. I also purchased the Dummies exercises book. Whew! Just love this Uke and the versatility of this instrument! Thank you so much for helping me learn this awesome instrument.

About

Brett McQueen is the founder of Ukulele Tricks and author of the internationally-published book Ukulele Exercises For Dummies. He teaches thousands of people from around the world to play ukulele in a non-intimidating, easy-to-follow style. Read more.